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Cleeng: Make money from your content, keep your readers happy

Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen numerous online publishers try and fail to implement ways to monetize their content. The choices were always pretty clear — You either put up a paywall and angered your customers, or you let everything go for free. Without a middle ground, publishers have been left starving and customers have been running to other sources.

Cleeng is, simply, a better way to monetize content on your site. Instead of having a pass or fail scenario where content is only visible to subscribers, publishers can choose to have only sections applied to the Cleeng payment method. For instance, let’s say that you do an interview with someone. The text of the interview could be entirely free, but then some value added section in a video could be charged via Cleeng. In short, it’s monetized content on a case-by-case basis.

What you end up with is a solution that keeps publishers happy (they’re making money) while preventing a site’s readers from running headlong into a paywall. Even better? It’s a one-click process that doesn’t involve leaving your site in order for someone to access the Cleeng content. Users can even choose to load up credits on Cleeng so that they don’t have to enter new payment information each time.

We’ve just heard from Cleeng on stage at TNW 2011 and the company is announcing its next product — an Enterprise version of Cleeng. With video hosting via Brightcove, a co-branded environment for Cleeng content and subscriptions plans for websites, Cleeng’s Enterprise platform is quite possibly the future of monetized content for online publishers.

Now let’s talk about something you might have missed in the video, but it’s really important. Instead of being tied only to a specific computer, purchased Cleeng content goes into a library. That way, no matter where you’re accessing the content (be that mobile, a laptop or otherwise) you’ll always have it at hand. Better yet, when you choose to share that content and it is then purchased by your friends or followers, you earn credits for even more Cleeng content. Again, it’s a win/win scenario for both the publisher and the reader.

When I was first reviewing Cleeng, I made the statement that if TNW ever decided to do premium content, I think that this is how it should be done. I still stand by that statement today. It’s genius-level monetization, without the headaches that normally come in tow.

We’re excited to see what Cleeng does with its Enterprise offering, and even more excited to see publishers make money from it. Keep your eyes open for Cleeng. With powerful partners and a 5-minute deployment process, it truly is the way that content will be monetized online.

This post is part of our contributor series. The views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily shared by TNW.